Radiohead's Evolution

Radiohead, as a band, have evolved with every album they produce. Written off as a one-hit-wonder with their single 'Creep' - a song that was released in 1992 but only got them attention when it was re-released in 1993 - they tried their best to move away from the 'Creep' band, going so far as to leave it till last in their live sets and sometimes even outright refusing to play it, something the radio stations might want to consider.

They released 'Pablo Honey' in 1993. The album, although containing some very decent songs, was mostly purchased for 'Creep' to the dismay of the band. The album also contains a song called 'Thinking about you', the lyrics of the song describe, presumably, Thom's infatuation with a famous celebrity and how he 'thinks about her' alot.

They later released 'The Bends' in 1995. This album is considered by many fans to be the album in which Radiohead found their 'sound'. The album contains the song 'My Iron Lung', a very bitter song about 'Creep' in which Thom compares the single to the immobilizing life-support known as an iron lung. Coincidentally, the chord progression to 'Creep' is the same as the chord progression to The Hollies song 'The Air That I Breathe'. I wonder if the respiratory reference was intentional.

'OK Computer' was later released in 1997. The album is considered a landmark album of the 90's and one of Radiohead's biggest sellers. Chris Martin of Coldplay (the proverbial 'marmite' of the music industry) said he would give his left testicle to produce an album like OK computer, unfortunately he gave both away when he married Gwynteh Paltrow

Kid A/Amnesiac: Both albums were released in 2000 and 2001, respectively. Kid A is considered to be a, yet another, ground breaking album. However, unlike OK Computer, Kid A is very heavily inspired by Electronic music. The song 'National Anthem' is well-known for it's ostinato bass-line which consists of only 4 notes, it is radiohead's most famous bassline, congratulations Colin Gree- oh right, the bassline was made by Thom Yorke....hurray.Amnesiac, although over-shadowed by Kid A is still a very experimental album, focusing more on jazz, it experiments with 'compound rhythms' in Pyramid song and use of upright bass. The song 'You and Whose Army?' is unusual because of Thom's ghostly vocals, which were played through the ondes martenot's speakers, luckily this didn't lead to a 'Thom is Dead' conspiracy, people are already busy solving the mystery of how Thom stole the 'H' from Jonny Greenwood's first name.

Hail to the Thief, or HTTT, was released in 2003. The album hadn't received as much attention than Kid A or OK Computer (even Robert Christgau slated the album, but screw him, he gave Soulja Boy an A-), but it managed to successfully mix the last three albums' (An 'A-', really?) sounds together into another unique album. 'Go To Sleep' is a very interesting song, its main riff, created by Ed O'brien, is in 10/4 for the first half of the song and then 4/4 for the remainder, the outro solo, played by Jonny Greenwood, was played through a MAX/MSP software patch, apparently he wanted to make it sound like the solo on 'Born Under Punches' by Talking Heads (So, does this mean that King Crimson's 'Red' is on the same level as Soulja Boy's 'Souljaboytellem.com'?)

In Rainbows, released in 2007, sparked controversy for its 'pay-what-you-want' approach in which fans could pay any amount they wanted. They did this as a celebration to being free from their record contract. The song '15 Step' is a dance piece in 5/4. For some reason, 5/4, 10/4, and other similar time signatures are very common in Radiohead's music, it features in: 'Go to Sleep', '15 Step', 'Everything in it Right Place', the synthesizer/guitar melody which runs through 'Let Down', second-half of 'These Are My Twisted Words'.

The King of Limbs was released in 2011. The album divided fans, which, if anyone knows Radiohead, is quite common. The Album itself is more akin to Kid A; most of the songs feature much less quitar work than the last album, vocals in most of the songs have large amounts of effects added to them, synthesizers take on more of a lead role. The only single from the album is 'Lotus Flower', it was even accompanied by a video of Thom dancing, in black and white, by himself. Surprisingly the dance was choreographed, although, what's funnier than the dance are the many videos that fans made in reaction to it .

If any of you have read this far then here's a small treat, If anybody tells you that Radiohead's music is depressing, then show them this or, if they think it's not upbeat enough, show them this.

This was really just an introduction to the group, it'd be bery hard to talk about every single album in detail in one post.If there's any other interesting things/songs about Radiohead, this'll be a great place to post them.